The Crisis at the Border: What Educators Need to Know
These classroom resources and booklists address the topic of family separations, detention centers, and the situation of unaccompanied minors. The resources also include related news headlines from recent events as well as related events in prior years.
Note: We have selected a range of resources providing useful information for schools and educators. While some of this material includes advocacy information, Colorín Colorado and our parent organization, public broadcasting station WETA-TV-FM, do not take political positions or participate in political advocacy. In addition, if your students or families are looking for legal advice, we strongly encourage you to collaborate with immigration attorneys or organizations who have the most updated information possible.
Classroom Resources: Crisis at the Border
Tough Topics in the News
- Image of Father-Daughter Drowning Calls Attention to Migrants' Risks (Voice of America)
- Study: What Was The Impact Of The Iconic Photo Of The Syrian Boy? (NPR)
- How conditions in U.S. detention centers can affect children’s health (PBS NewsHour)
- Migrant Children Are Spending Months ‘Crammed’ in a Temporary Florida Shelter (The New York Times)
- Border crisis, immigration: What we know about child detention centers, deportations, the photo (USA Today)
- Highlights Magazine is taking on Trump’s family separation policy (The Washington Post)
- Unsafe Immigrant Children = Future Students (Immigrants, Refugees, and Schools)
- What are national organizations saying about family separations at the U.S. southern border? (Language Castle)
- How much oversight do foster homes for migrant children have? (PBS NewsHour)
Tips for Talking with Kids
- How to Talk About the News of Family Separations at the Border (Common Sense Media)
- Teacher Reflection: Teaching on the Border (Teaching Tolerance)
- How to have the 'hard conversation' with kids about migration at the U.S. border (The Washington Post)
Study Guides & Classroom Activities
- Lesson Plan: The power of photographs from Vietnam to the border crisis (PBS NewsHour Extra)
- Study guide: How separating families became official U.S. government policy (ShareMyLesson & PBS NewsHour)
- Resources for Talking and Teaching About Immigrant Family Separations (Reimagining Migration, shared via Share My Lesson)
- Teaching Activities for: ‘Hundreds of Immigrant Children Have Been Taken From Parents at U.S. Border’ (The New York Times)
- Deconstructing the Wall: Teaching About the Symbolism, Politics and Reality of the U.S.-Mexico Border (The New York Times)
- C-SPAN Classroom
- Aloe Blacc: "Wake Me Up" music video
Related Booklists
- Immigrant Stories: Life Along the Border (Books for Kids)
- Immigration Stories: Crossing the Border (Books for Young Adults)
- Undocumented: Stories of Young Immigrants
Teaching Topics Related to Immigration & Civil Rights
For additional resources and booklists, see our:
- “Immigration in the Classroom” resource section
- Japanese-American Internment: Books for Kids and Young Adults
- Lesson: The Child Refugee Debate (Facing History)
Information for Educators
Guide: Supporting Immigrant Students in Schools and Early Childhood Settings
Across the country, educators are looking for ways to support immigrant students and families facing great uncertainty. This comprehensive guide includes more than 50 strategies that educators, staff, and administrators can use to ensure that schools and early childhood settings remain safe, welcoming places for immigrant students and their families.
Addressing Trauma
- School Personnel Can Help Students Heal from Trauma (AFT)
- Trauma Toolkit: Tools to Support the Learning & Development of Students Experiencing Childhood & Adolescent Trauma (First Book and Maryland State Education Association)
- How the Toxic Stress of Family Separation Can Harm a Child (PBS NewsHour)
- Family Separations at Border Alarm Child Welfare Experts (AP News)
- What Detention And Separation Mean For Kids' Mental Health (NPR)
- A Trauma Therapist on the Anguist Immigrant Families Feel When They're Separated (KERA News)
- Using a Strengths-Based Approach with ELs: Supporting Students Living with Trauma, Violence and Chronic Stress (article)
- Teaching to Strengths: Supporting Students Living with Trauma, Violence, and Chronic Stress (ASCD, 2017)
- Tutorial: Recognizing and Addressing Trauma in Infants, Young Children, and Their Families (Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development)
- Helping Students Heal Through Love and Trust: A Social Worker's Perspective on Serving Immigrant Youth
The Experiences of Migrant Children and Families
- Education of Migrant Children in Shelters: 6 Things to Know (Education Week)
- The History Of The Flores Settlement and Its Effects on Immigration (NPR)
- For Many Immigrant Families, the Fight for Reunification is Just Beginning (Latino USA)
- A boy separated from his mom at the border faces his first Christmas without her (The Washington Post)
- What the Nation's Best Teachers Are Saying About U.S. Child Detention Policies (Education Week)
Unaccompanied Minors
Many of the children who are currently in detention centers arrived to this country as unaccompanied minors. Learn more about this unique population from our resource section, the book Enrique's Journey, and author and journalist Sonia Nazario.
Enrique's Journey: The Story of a Boy's Dangerous Odyssey to Reunite with His Mother (Adapted for Young Adults)
By Sonia Nazario
In 2007, Los Angeles Times reporter Sonia Nazario published Enrique's Journey, a book based on her Pulitzer-Prize winning reports about a teenage boy's harrowing trip north to the U.S. from Honduras to find his mother, who had immigrated to the U.S. eleven years earlier. Sonia has now published a Young Adult version of the compelling and gritty book adapted for readers 12 and older.
Video Interview with Sonia Nazario, Author of Enrique's Journey
Unaccompanied children and youth
Enrique's Journey: The story behind the story
